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Monday, February 5, 2007

The Superbowl and Peru

I have not missed a single superbowl ever since I arrived to SF more than 5 years ago. And 2007 was not going to be an exception. We tried as hard as we could to find a hotel in Ica with cable tv. Since we are backpackers (traveling under a tight budget) we have to empower the Sol as much as we can. 2 nights in a nice hotel was one night too many so we decided to split our stay in Ica in two. Saturday in a crappy hotel and Sunday in a crappy hotel with cable tv. The funny thing is that we ended up paying 50 soles for this second hotel, which broke our record for money spent per night, and it happend to be one of the worst ones yet. I would like to say that we missed our friends the cockroaches from Lima, but it was just not the case. It pretty much sucked to deal with this disgusting peruvian fauna again. At least we did not have to give the manager too much shit before he offered some money back.

Btw, the superbowl was one of the best ones in history. The first quarter was simply amazing. And I am not a big american football fan. Luckily the offense prevailed over defense and the Colts won the title.

Ica is pretty awesome, and we have been very lucky with timing. The day we arrived was the National Pisco Sour Day, one of the things peruvians are most proud of, even though it is not very popular outside their borders. Except in Chile, where they claim the Pisco as originally theirs. I do not personally like it, but we had to check that party out. All the bodegas were piling up in an open field offering a sample of their Pisco and/or wines. We tried some from a bodega called "el catador" which we plan on visiting today on a tour. And the fun was jut about to begin. The following day we headed to Huacachina, a real oasis in the middle of the desert. Being as hot as it was I could not help joining the locals in a extremely refreshing immersion in the lagoon. Lynz does not have a swimsuit yet, I don´t know what that girl is thinking. The atraction number 2 of the oasis are the dunes and sandboarding, and I did just that. Or at least I tried. The sand was so _______ hot I could not walk on it, even with flip flops so I had to squeeze my imagination and use my swimsuit and a handkerchief and a plastic bag as shoes for my right and left feet respectively to be able to climb the sand dunes so I could board my way down. I certainly entertained a couple of peruvian families that were having a laugh at my expense. We could agree that my try at sandboarding was a failure, but I never gave up.

Back to the town and one more surprise. It was the first day of carnaval and tradition has it that the whole city becomes a water-war field. Lynz and her t-shirt can tell from a first hand perspective.

As you may know by now we lost our camara charger so we have to use our phone to take pictures and I still have not figured out a way of uploading them to the computer. Please stay tuned. We should be able to fix this problem shortly.

Before Ica we stopped by Nazca to fly over the famous Nazca lines. Our idea was to spend one day in this town, but it took us only a few minutes to dig it after the plane ride, and when we heard about the Pisco Sour day in Ica it was not a no brainer. The ride itself is a whole different story. We payed a bit extra (still a good price) for a small five-passenger that we shared with a french couple and a german. After the first 6 drawings I felt like throwing up, but my pride kept me going. I was not to show my weakness in front of strangers, at least I was not going to the first one. But all the fellow travelers seemed to be doing just fine, including (surprise) Lynz. Nevertheless I enjoyed the trip.

Tonight we leave for Lima, but just for the night as we will be flying to Iquitos tomorrow early in the morning on an almost-free flight. We used the compensation voucher that Lan Peru gave us for accepting to take a later flight Lima-Cusco due to overbooking. We are really looking forward to visiting the jungle. After the coast and the mountains it is the only thing left.